Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell speaks at the National Press Club in Washington Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2004. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has asked his fellow commissioners to overturn a much-criticized decision that an expletive uttered by the musician Bono on a network program was not obscene. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

2004-01-15 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- The nation's top cop of the airwaves, stung by criticism the word f - - was allowed onto a national television broadcast, has asked his colleagues to reconsider the decision not to fine NBC television for allowing the vulgar language to slip by.

At issue is U2 star Bono's statement during last January's prime time Golden Globe Awards show. "This is really, really f -- brilliant," he said over the federally regulated airwaves without being bleeped out.

FCC regulators could have fined NBC, which broadcast the awards show, a maximum of $27,500 for the violation of indecency rules, but they decided not to, saying Bono's use of the word wasn't sexual. Stations that carried the comments could have also been fined, an FCC spokeswoman said, if the agency wanted to be really tough.

Powell said Wednesday that letting NBC off the hook wasn't acceptable, adding that he wanted his four fellow commission members to reopen the case.

"I personally believe that the sort of growing coarseness in use of such profanity at a time where we are very likely to know that children are watching is abhorrent and irresponsible," Powell said in an appearance at the National Press Club. "It's irresponsible of our programmers to continue to try to push the envelope of a reasonable set of policies that tries to legitimately balance the interests of the First Amendment with the need to protect our kids. I think that line is beginning to be crossed."

Powell said he would like Congress to raise fines for indecency tenfold.

"Some of these fines are peanuts," Powell said. "They are peanuts because they haven't been touched in decades. They're just the cost of doing business to a lot of producers, and that has to change."

Ose said he was glad Powell had set out to reverse the FCC decision, but he will press on with legislation to remove the agency's discretion when Congress returns next week. "My problem is that absent the bill, you don't know what's sanctionable ... What is profane? What is obscene? Our bill spells it out."

The bill, HR 3687, lists such swear-words as those used for excrement, the sex act, urine and parts of the body. The list includes one word, a -- h -- , twice, as one word, and in its compound form. The bill would ban the words from broadcast TV and radio, but it wouldn't affect cable TV or Internet radio, whose content isn't federally regulated.

Ose also said he wasn't prepared yet to endorse Powell's call for higher fines. Powell hasn't taken a position on Ose's bill.

The issue has gotten considerable national news coverage in the last few weeks, and a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 28.

Ose, a three-term House member who isn't running for re-election in November, and his co-sponsor, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, say many more House members plan to sign on to their bill once they return to Washington.

While the FCC didn't fine NBC in the Bono case, it has levied other fines in recent months.

Last November, it fined WKRK-FM in Detroit, owned by Infinity Broadcasting, the maximum $27,500 for a program on the "Deminski & Doyle" show that invited people to call in to discuss their sexual practices.

"The broadcast included explicit and graphic sexual references, including references to anal and oral sex, as well as explicit and graphic references to sexual practices that involve excretory activities," the FCC ruling said.

FCC regulators also fined Infinity's WNEW-FM in New York $375,000 in October for "willfully and repeatedly" breaking the indecency rules. The case involved the station's contest that called on listeners to have sex in risky places. The contest ended up with a couple caught having sex in the pews at St. Patrick's Cathedral.